Golf for Urgent Care a hole-in-one

“It has been a rewarding campaign to work on because the community is so behind us,” said Urgent Care organizer Susan Samson, referring to the great effort of the Golf for Urgent Care tournament held at Meadowland Golf Course on Friday, August 12.

The tournament, which had 123 golfers and 160 people attend the evening steak dinner, is part of the ongoing fundraising effort to purchase and fund equipment for the future urgent care facility in Sylvan Lake.

“Lots of people dressed up as various MASH characters and we had two jeeps there,” Samson said. “It appeared to everyone who worked on the golf tournament that everyone had a really good time.”

The day had surprisingly perfect weather after a summer full of rain and the tournament featured five hole-in-one contests which golfers made “a few valiant attempts at” according toSamson.

“The golf course treated us like kings and queens - everyone was watered and fed,” she said. “The dinner was a steak dinner with no complaints and everyone was very pleased.

“There was a lot of prizes given out.”

Samson was very pleased with the effort by the core committee and the volunteers who started organizing this event back in the early spring.

“We had close to 20 volunteers that were on the course all day - they had a nice time as well because it is a nice atmosphere,” she said. “Everyone seemed to be quite pleased and we treated the volunteers to dinner afterwards and everyone went home happy.”

The core committee currently has raised $125,000 in trust through the golf tournament, the Tim Horton’s Cookie campaign, the Yuletide Festival and other private donors. The committee would like to double that amount and the golf tournament was looking to surpass the $27,000 raised at last years’ event. Final results of the funds raised will not be available until the end of the month.

The committee is working closely with provincial officials in order to stay on task and help finish the process to get an Urgent Care Facility in Sylvan Lake.

“We are working closely with Alberta Health Services to put together a plan that identifies a site and what would be offered there,” Samson said. “We want to have that plan no later thanSeptember 30. This is exactly what we have been working for - a decision from the province to give us the go ahead.”

The money raised would go towards equipment that would be extra to the regular equipment provided at an Urgent Care Facility.

Samson was happy to see the support from the local area for this event and the push for urgent care.

“Our sponsors, supporters and donors were very supportive this year - even more generous than last year,” she said. “They believe in what we are doing and they know we will make a breakthrough at some point. They want to be there to celebrate with us.”

She added that she was happy to see support from the summer villages, the Town of Eckville and the City of Red Deer at this event.

“It goes to show people are aware of what we are doing and that they want to support it,” she said.

reporter@sylvanlakenews.com